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- Wizard 101: How to Insult People and Circumvent the Filter
- Chapter One: A Chapter in Which There is Much Ado About the Ordinary
- City of Heroes Optioned For the Silver Screen
- Wizard 101: The End of the Semester
- Metal Wolf Chaos -- Vote for Your American Justice
- The Helvetica Venture
- Experience the World of Warcraft like no blood elf fanfic has before.
- The Warcraft Eye
- In a drunken stupor is a bad time to get caught undead in Azeroth.
Spore: First Impressions
With the debut of the latest Sim game 2 weeks ago, many have gotten a taste of Spore and have found it pleasant. The gameplay is familiar to those experienced with world-building simulation games - not surprising, coming from Will Wright and Maxis, creators of “Sim” -everything games.
But some find it lacking the spice of SCIENCE they were hoping to encounter.
At least, that’s how it appears in the first phases of the game. Perhaps not every player wants to dig deep into DNA, RNA, genomes and evolutionary theory. But some expected more “edutainment” value from the gameplay itself. The first few levels seem to rush you through the evolutionary process, and feeding and reproduction play an arbitrary, although necessary, part of evolving your life form. The commercial featuring the term “creatio-lutionism” is not far from the mark. You are an active, (presumably) intelligent designer who decides what body parts your …
Upcoming Games - August 2008 edition
A little late in the month, but here’s our Upcoming Games - August 2008 edition!
For release this month:
Shepherd’s Crossing (PS2) - August 19, 2008
Also known as: Welcome to Sheep Village, Youkoso Hitsuji-Mura (JPN)
Check out a preview of the game. Could be a the start of a “new” farming series here in North America.
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (DS) - August 26, 2008
(See our recent post for more info on Harvest Moon releases)
September:
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (Wii) - September 16, 2008
(See above for more info on Harvest Moon releases)
Spore (PC, Mac, DS, more) - September 7, 2008
Battle Fantasia (XBox 360) - September 16th, 2008
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked (Wii) - September 23, 2008
Samba de Amigo (Wii) - September 23, 2008
Disgea (DS) - September 23, 2008
Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge (DS) - September 23, 2008
October:
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS) - October 16, 2008
Little Big Planet (PS3) - October …
Harvest Moon Updates: August 2008 Edition
August 26, 2008:
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (DS)
The literal translation of this Nintendo DS Harvest Moon game is “The Island That Grows With You”. Chose to be a boy or girl, with a variety of suitors!
September 16, 2008
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (Wii)
The release date for this first ever version of Harvest Moon for the Nintendo Wii has been pushed yet again, so it will no longer coincide with the release of HM: Island of Happiness.
Unannounced for North America:
Harvest Moon: Shining Sun and Friends (DS)
The Japan release of this game was February 2008. A sequel to Island of Happiness, as you again find yourself on the Island!
Forthcoming Japan releases:
Wakuwaku Animal March (Wii)
No release date available! Stay tuned for more details. Check out Ranch Story for screenshots and details!
Rune Factory Frontier (Wii)
No release date available! Check out Ushi No Tane’s forum for details.
Send in Your Pics for Star Control IV?
“As part of my multipronged strategy to convince Activision to insist that our next project be a Star Control one, I have come up with [an] idea to harness the powers of arts and crafts as well as fans everywhere.
What I want to do is this: Make a giant map of the Earth. Maybe I should just buy one. I’m not a map maker. If I were, I’d probably be instantly fired for my alternative spelling of the nation known as Uruguay as well as the fabrication of non-existent countries like Nutsack Kingdom and Nutsack Kingdom II. As a matter of fact, I have already been fired from previous jobs for these exact same reasons, even though none of those jobs involved making a map…
Phase two is where I once again, ask you wonderful community of fans for support. What I want is to put pictures of you guys up …
Console Wars Heating up in July
Although the Nintendo Wii continues to outsell Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, things are looking up for the other two video game console makers.
The MS Xbox 360 continues to outsell the PS3 for the ninth month in a row, but Sony’s apparently not worried. Early in July Sony announced a price drop for the PlayStation 3 and has since seen a 61-percent increase in the number of units sold. Q4 may show stronger sales for all consoles as titles such as Lair (PS3), Halo 3 (Xbox 360) and Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) coming out for the holiday buying season.
More info on the July 2007 NPD retail numbers at IGN.
Viva Pinata: DS Version Cometh!
The news from San Diego’s Comic-Con International this past weekend is that Microsoft will release Viva Pinata for the Nintendo DS.
It looks like the game will be a port of Rare’s original Xbox 360 game, with some changes to accommodate the handheld’s functionality. As the announcement came on Kids’ Day (Sunday), perhaps this is MicroSoft’s attempt at the kiddie (and casual gamer) market, as most kids don’t own an Xbox but they sure love the DS!
Rapala Tournament Fishing Review (Wii)
Overall Score: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10
If you’re looking for a fishing game that takes full advantage of the Wii’s capabilities, you’ll be disappointed in Rapala Tournament Fishing for Nintendo Wii. Although it has the potential to simulate a realistic fishing experience, the game falls short on several areas.
On the plus side, the game offers a lot of information on real fishing in the extras area, but not a lot of that is used in-game. As it issponsered by Rapala brand lures, the focus is on the marketing aspect, and not necessarily on gameplay itself.
Some of the biggest fish in the game are really impressive as you drag them out of the water - Peacock Bass in the Amazon, Nile Perch in Africa - with superhuman strength. If only more detail had been put into skill (and correspondingly, into good motion sensing). If you absolutely love real-world fishing, you may find …
Harvest Moon Games: News Update
Natsume/Marvelous Interactive has some upcoming games in the Harvest Moon Series.
HM Wii - Release Date: Q2 2008
The actual title is still pending, but sources hint at “Tree of Tranquility”. Now you can harness the Wiimote for what it was destined for: farming. Play as a boy or girl. Bonus: fishing!
The wait will be worth it for this one.
HM DS Cute (Girl version of HM DS) - Release Date: Q1 2008
This is the girl version of Harvest Moon: DS. Natsume usually releases a girl version after the original boy version of the game. The benefit to this, besides being a chick, is that they usually fix a lot of bugs that slip by in the original.
Harvest Moon Boy & Girl (PSP) - Release Date: July 31, 2007
This game is actually direct port of PS1 game, Back to Nature. It combines the boy and girl version so you can choose which …
E3 2007 News
E3 2007 was full of news on upcoming games for the big three consoles - Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation3, Microsoft XBox 360. But no clear winners this year, no secret revelations. A lot of the titles were already revealed earlier this year. One of the ones that caught my eye was LittleBigPlanet for the PS3 (check out the video for it!). Also there was more news on the upcoming (Q2 2008) Harvest Moon for the Wii. Aaaah, farming.
One of the problems that arose with E3 is that the costs for large venues creep up. Game developers see more return from smaller, specific expos where they can gain more attention for their own games instead of competing against each other. So this year’s E3 was smaller than previous years, with a limited number of attendees. The Entertainment Software Association released only about 5,000 invitations to the event, compared to …
A New Vox on the Block
Games, anyone?
We all love games. You can love them even more now, with a plethora of consoles & handheld devices. And, of course, the trusty old computer. Whether you prefer the intense action of a first person shooter, the challenge of a strategy sim, the open-endedness of a virtual world, the fast-pace of an arcade classic, or the boring, dogged addiction of building up the ultimate Bean Farm, look here to get some feedback.
Games in the queue for review are a variety of DS, Wii (plus Virtual Console) and PC games, with emphasis on fun puzzlers, RPG, simulations & strategy.
Play on.
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- Game Politics - Where politics and video games collide.
- Mill Avenue Vexations - A gothic, occult thriller by Kyt Dotson—burning rubber where angels fear to tread.
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